This invention generally relates to replaceable components installable into printing devices, and more particularly, to printing device components having a memory.
Several types of printing devices, such as printers, copiers, facsimile machines, etc., have replaceable components installed in them that have a life cycle during which the component is functional. When the functional life cycle ends, the component is replaced with a new component. Examples of replaceable components for printing devices include ink cartridges, toner cartridges, ribbon cartridges, fusers, photoconductors, drums, and the like.
After a replaceable component has reached the end of its functional life cycle, it can be recycled. For instance, when a toner supply within the toner cartridge has been depleted, it can be refurbished by the original manufacturer or by another toner cartridge vendor. Refurbishing a toner cartridge includes, among other things, replenishing the toner supply. Preferably, the toner cartridge is refilled with toner that conforms to the manufacturer""s original specifications so that the printing device will print properly and the refurbished toner cartridge will have an acceptable life cycle. After a toner cartridge has been refurbished, it can be resold for further use in a printing device.
Original equipment manufacturers (OEM) rely on trademarks and trade dress to uniquely identify their products to consumers as being manufactured or refurbished to original product specifications. A consumer is thereby assured that he is purchasing a reliable component specifically manufactured or refurbished for his printing device. By purchasing OEM components for a printing device, the consumer is guaranteed that the component will conform to manufacturer specifications, function as expected within the printing device, and protect the printing device from sustaining damage.
Counterfeit refurbished printer cartridges pose a significant problem for legitimate OEMs. For example, consider a laser printer that is manufactured and sold by Hewlett-Packard. The laser printer originally contains a toner cartridge that is manufactured by Hewlett-Packard or a certified OEM. When the toner cartridge is depleted, the owner of the printer may choose to purchase a toner cartridge from a company other than Hewlett-Packard and send in the original cartridge to be refurbished. The vendor who receives the old toner cartridge is now in possession of a toner cartridge that has been manufactured by Hewlett-Packard and possesses all the outer markings of a genuine Hewlett-Packard toner cartridge.
Hewlett-Packard does not exercise any control over the actions of the vendor, who is free to refill the cartridge with any type of toner. The vendor may refill the cartridge with a less expensive, inferior toner and resell the cartridge as a genuine Hewlett-Packard toner cartridge. Also, the vendor may not completely refill the toner cartridge with toner, giving the consumer much less than the consumer has bargained for. To further enhance such a fraudulent scheme, some counterfeit cartridge vendors have been known to actually duplicate the packaging of the original manufacturer. The consumerxe2x80x94who believes he has purchased a quality toner cartridgexe2x80x94actually receives an inferior product that may not produce the print quality or print as many pages as a genuine cartridge.
In addition, using inferior toner in a toner cartridge may also cause damage to a consumer""s printer. Not only does the consumer sustain damage directly to his printer, the manufacturer of the printer may be harmed if the consumer attempts to have the printer repaired under the manufacturer""s warranty on the printer.
Some printer cartridges are manufactured with memory integrated as part of the cartridge itself or placed on the cartridge as part of the labeling. This memory is used to store printer related data that the printer reads to determine certain printing parameters and communicate information to the user. For example, the memory may store the model number of the cartridge so that the printer may recognize the cartridge as one which is compatible with that particular printer. Additionally, by way of example, the cartridge memory may store the number of pages that can be expected to be printed from the cartridge during a life cycle, thereby allowing the printer to determine how many additional pages may be printed by the cartridge.
This advancement in technology has not proven to stop counterfeit cartridge vendors from trading on a manufacturer""s earned reputation. Information that would be stored in cartridge memory by a manufacturer is simply stored by the vendor. For example, if the manufacturer places a code in the cartridge memory to indicate that it has been refurbished by the manufacturer, a counterfeit cartridge vendor can simply read the code from an authentic cartridge and write the same code to each cartridge the vendor refurbishes.
Utilizing read-only memory on printer cartridges is not a practical solution to the problem because there are various types of vendors who legitimately require write access to such memory. For example, a reseller may need to access the memory to store a telephone number or a Universal Resource Locator (URL) that would be provided to the consumer to assist in ordering a replacement cartridge. Additionally, the printing device itself may perform functions that require the device to write to the memory.
The present invention contemplates encrypting data stored in memory on a replaceable component of a printing device to prevent unauthorized access to the memory. This will deter counterfeit cartridge vendors from having the ability to read data from an authentic cartridge that could thereafter be stored in the memory of a counterfeit cartridge. At the same time, authorized vendors may have access to read the data.
A printer cartridge having memory containing an encrypted authorization code provides the authorization code to a printer into which the cartridge is installed. The printer is provided with a decryption key to decrypt the authorization code. If the authorization code is valid, the printer enables all its functions and operates normally. If the authorization code is invalid, the printer enables only its basic print functions. Certain functions that depend on the quality of the printer cartridge are disabled. For example, a printer may have a function that tracks the number of pages printed from a printer cartridge and estimates the number of pages that may be printed from the toner remaining in the cartridge. Upon detection of an invalid authentication code, the printer would disable this function as being unreliable since the function would require the printer to know certain information about the cartridge and the tonerxe2x80x94e.g., how much toner was originally in the cartridge, how much toner is used per page, etc. Because a counterfeit cartridge vendor may use an inferior type of toner or only partially fill the cartridge with toner, it would be impossible for the printer to have the information required for the function to operate reliably.
The present invention also provides for password protection of portions of cartridge memory, or data areas, so that only authorized entities having an encryption key provided by the manufacturer can obtain read or write access to certain portions of the memory. One or more data areas may be configured so that any device may read from or write to the data areas. Other data areas may be configured to allow all devices to read the data contained therein but would require a device to present a password before being allowed to write to the data areas. Still other data areas may be configured to require a device to have a password or key before being allowed to read from or write to the data areas.
In the example of the reseller who needs write access to the memory to store a URL for ordering a new cartridge, that reseller provides encrypted data to the memory. Logic associated with the memory determines which area of memory the reseller may access to store the information. The resellers password allows access only to that specific area of the memory. The reseller would not have the ability to read from or write to other areas of the memory to which the reseller does not require access.